Poetry and Fiction by Christopher Guerin. The current sonnet sequence, working title "My Human Disguise," of ekphrastic poems, after paintings and other images (posted each Thursday), was begun February, 2011.

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

The Tree of Crows (Caspar David Friedrich)

#25

Only one is firmly perched on its branches.
The others appear to have been scared off,
Or are they all arriving for the night?
We can't be sure which leaves or advances.
No murder of, but a chaos -- none paired off
Like swans or cardinals -- scattered in flight,
Lines in the sky like these thinning limbs,
A picture of someone's desperate screams.
The trajectories of crows are mere whims,
The tree will draw in in orderly streams.
Don't you believe it. The explosion of lines,
Both bird and twig, are devoid of symmetry,
Like thought we can speak, but not define.
Is it a tree of crows or a crow of a tree?

About Me

I spent 26 years in the symphony orchestra business, 20 of them as President of the Fort Wayne Philharmonic. I have two degrees in English Literature from Northern Illinois University. My lovely wife Ruth and my two daughters, Julia and Alice, are all talented artists.